The  Church 


and 

The  Nation 


Sermon  by 

Washington  Gladden.  D.D. 


BV 

2775 
.G57 
1905 


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s>y 


^^  x^t  w^imm  ^ 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


m  t  V  an 


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BV  2775  .G57  1905 
Gladden,  Washington,  1836- 

1918. 
The  Church  and  the  nation 


The  Church  and 
The  Nation 


A    SERMON 

Preached   at   the   Seventy-ninth   Annual   Meeting    of 

The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 

in   Springfield,    Mass.,    May    31,    1905 


By   Washington   Gladden,   D.D. 

of  Columbus,  Ohio 

Moderator  of  the  National  Council 


The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society 

1905 


The  Church  and  the  Nation. 

■The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  mc  because  He  anointed  me  to  preach 
good  tidings  to  the  poor;  He  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the 
captives,  and  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  thai 
are  bruised. 

To  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord. — Luke  iv:i8,  19. 

It  is  a  happy  coincidence  which  has  placed  the  anniversary  of  the 
Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society  on  Decoration  Day.  Those 
who  know  what  the  Society  stands  for  and  what  its  record  has  been  will 
feel  no  incongruity  between  the  two  observances.  Each  may  lend  some- 
thing to  the  other  of  remembrance  and  of  suggestion.  The  veterans 
may  help  us  to  recall  events  that  show  us  the  real  significance  of  our 
work,  and  we  may  be  able  to  show  them  that  there  are  still  for  them 
standards  to  lift  up  and  battles  to  fight. 

The  Congregational  Home  Missionary  Society  was  known,  forty 
years  ago,  as  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society.  It  was  then,  as 
now,  the  agent  of  the  Congregational  churches,  but  its  name  was  then, 
I  think,  even  more  significant  of  its  real  character  than  it  is  to-day,  for 
its  larger  purpose  has  always  been  national  more  than  denominational. 
Its  motto  might  well  have  been  Christo  et  patricr,  for  Christ  and  Father- 
land. It  cares  less  for  making  Congregationalists  than  for  making  pa- 
triots and  Christians ;  it  values  its  denominational  specialties  only  as 
aids  in  the  building  of  character  which  shall  serve  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
;^       whose  largest  forms  appear,  not  in  the  church,  but  in  the  nation. 

It  was  the  deep  consciousness  of  a  great  responsibility  for  the  na- 
tional welfare  which  filled  the  hearts  of  the  Congregational  people  in  the 
middle  decades  of  the  last  century,  and  which  drew  forth  the  splendid 
enterprise  by  which  they  went  out  and  took  possession  of  the  great 
Northwest.  Something  made  them  see  that  this  vast  domain  was  of  price- 
less value  to  the  nation,  and  that  it  must  be  stocked  with  ideas  and  influ- 
ences which  would  hold  it  true  to  the  traditions  of  liberty.  When  the  war 
broke  out  the  great  States  of  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota  and 
Iowa  and  Nebraska  and  Kansas  were  filled  with  a  population  well  sat- 
urated with  the  ideas  that  had  given  New  England  her  influence  in 
the  councils  of  the  nation.  That  the  American  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety had  done  all  this  work  must  not  be  claimed,  but  it  had  had  a  very 
large  share  in  it.  Certain  it  is  that  the  Congregationalists  of  those  great 
States  were  at  the  front  in  all  that  conflict.  Wherever  there  was  a 
Congregational  church  there  was  a  recruiting  agency  for  the  army  of 


^ 


-N 


the  Union,  though  many  of  them,  as  the  conflict  deepened,  were  nearly 
despoiled  of  their  male  membership  through  the  absence  of  their  men 
in  the  field.  The  war  record  of  these  American  Home  Missionary 
churches  of  the  Northwest  is  one  of  which  we  shall  never  have  occasion 
to  be  ashamed.  If  the  great  Northwest  had  not  been  passionately  loyal 
in  that  conflict,  we  could  never  have  held  this  nation  together ;  and  we 
may  safely  claim  that  among  the  influences  which  made  and  kept  it 
loyal,  not  the  least  important  was  the  work  of  this  Home  Missionary 
Society.  And  one  who  returns,  as  I  have  just  returned  from  a  journey 
of  nearly  three  thousand  miles  through  the  fertile  fields,  and  the  thriv- 
ing towns  and  cities  of  that  great  Northwest ;  one  who  has  been  looking 
into  the  faces  of  a  good  many  thousands  of  these  Western  Congrega- 
tionalists  and  has  seen  their  country  planted  thick  with  their  schools 
and  colleges  and  churches,  and  has  felt  the  thrill  of  their  vital  enthus- 
iasm for  righteousness,  and  has  been  able  to  realize  how  large  a  part 
these  States  must  bear  in  the  future  life  of  the  nation,  will  have  gained 
some  new  impression  of  the  service  which  has  been  rendered  to  the 
nation  by  the  society  whose  anniversary  we  to-day  are  keeping. 

This  anniversary  must  always  take  on  a  patriotic  as  well  as  a  reli- 
gious character,  and  it  is  therefore  fitting  that  it  should  occur  on  this 
day,  and  that  it  should  be  participated  in  by  the  veterans  of  the  civil 
war.  And  I  desife  to  draw  your  attention  to  certain  truths  that  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  the  church  and  of  the  nation,  truths  which  we  are  in 
danger  of  forgetting,  but  of  which  on  this  day  we  may  fully  be  reminded. 

The  question  is  sometimes  raised  whether  this  is  a  Christian  nation. 
It  is  certainly  not  a  Qiristian  nation  in  any  formal  or  legal  sense. 
Christianity  is  not  established  by  law,  and  one  of  the  glories  of  our 
Constitution  is  the  provision  that  religious  observances  shall  never  be 
enforced  by  law  within  our  borders.  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd  points  to 
that  article  as  the  high-water  mark  of  Western  Civilization.  Indeed,  I 
think  we  may  say  that  the  nation  would  not  be  Christian,  in  the  highest 
and  truest  sense,  if  it  undertook  to  enforce  by  law  Christian  beliefs  or 
observances.  That  would  be  an  infraction  of  a  principle  that  is  funda- 
mental in  Christianity.    A  compulsory  faith  is  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

But  if  the  nation  cannot  make  itself  Giristian  by  legal  enactments, 
it  may,  nevertheless,  be  essentially  Christian  in  spirit  and  in  purpose. 
A  nation,  as  well  as  a  man,  may  have  a  Christian  character.  And  while 
we  have  no  desire  to  see  the  establishment  of  any  form  of  religion  by 
law  in  this  land,  most  of  us  would  be  willing  to  see  the  nation  in  its  pur- 
poses and  policies  and  ruling  aims  becoming  essentially  Giristian. 

It  is  also  sometimes  questioned  in  these  days  whether  the  church 
is  Christian.  Before  trying  to  answer,  it  might  be  profitable  to  ask 
ourselves  precisely  what  is  meant  by  that  great  adjective.    The  church 


is  certainly  seeking  to  be  Christian  in  its  doctrines,  in  its  ordinances, 
in  its  confession ;  it  calls  itself  by  Christ's  name ;  it  professes  to  believe 
the  truth  he  taught,  and  it  is,  no  doubt,  in  an  imperfect  way,  following 
him.  Yet  we  must  not  fail  to  see  that  it  is  not  in  its  doctrines,  its 
ceremonies,  or  its  confessions,  but  in  its  character  that  the  church  most 
clearly  proves  its  right  to  bear  the  Christian  name.  The  question  with 
the  church,  as  with  the  man,  is  not  so  much  whether  it  professes  the 
Christian  faith  as  whether  it  lives  the  Christian  life. 

Now  there  is  one  test  which  we  have  a  right  to  apply  to  the  church 
and  to  the  nation,  to  see  whether  they  deserve  the  Christian  name.  I 
will  not  say  that  it  is  the  only  test;  it  is  not.  I  think  that  we  could 
conceive  of  characters  which  would  meet  this  particular  test  and  which 
would  yet  be  unworthy  of  the  Christian  name.  But  while  the  quality 
which  this  test  demands  is  not  the  only  essential  quality  of  a  Christian 
man  or  a  Christian  church  or  a  Christian  nation,  it  is  one  of  the  essen- 
tial qualities ;  it  is  not  enough  to  make  a  Christian,  but  there  can  be  no 
Christian  without  it.  What  is  this  quality?  It  is  brought  to  light  in 
the  verses  which  I  have  read  for  a  text. 

These  words  are  the  first  public  declaration  made  by  our  Lord  of  the 
nature  of  his  mission.  He  had  gone,  on  the  Sabbath  day,  into  the 
synagogue  of  the  village  where  he  had  always  lived,  and  after  the  read- 
ing of  the  law  and  the  prayers,  the  reader  had  handed  to  him  the  roll 
of  the  Prophet  Isaiah.  Taking  it  in  his  hands,  he  read  from  it  these 
words :  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  ^because  he  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  re- 
lease to  the  captives,  and  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind ;  to  set  at  liberty 
them  that  are  bruised ;  to  preach  the  acceptable  word  of  the  Lord.  And 
he  closed  the  book  and  gave  it  back  to  the  attendant  and  sat  down ; 
and  the  eyes  of  all  the  synagogue  were  fastened  on  Him.  And  he  be- 
gan to  say  unto  them.  To-day  hath  this  Scripture  been  fulfilled  in  )  our 
ears." 

It  is  a  most  impressive  proclamation  by  the  Prince  of  life  himself 
of  the  nature  of  the  Kingdom  he  had  come  to  establish.  You  may  call 
it  his  inaugural  message, 

Jesus  quotes  these  great  words  of  the  prophet  as  having  their  ful- 
fillment in  himself.  He  is  the  anointed  one,  the  Messiah ;  the  Spirit  of 
God  is  upon  him ;  and  the  proof  of  his  divine  commission,  of  his  Mes- 
sianic royalty,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  he  becomes  the  servant  and  the 
helper  of  the  poor  and  the  unfortunate  and  the  needy. 

It  is  for  this  that  he  is  anointed ;  this  is  the  meaning  of  his  Messiah- 
ship.  Surely  there  can  be  no  more  explicit  or  authoritative  statement. 
But  he  takes  occasion  more  than  once  to  confirm  it,  notably  on  that 
occasion  when  John  the  Baptist,  in  prison,  losing  heart  and  hope,  sent 

5 


his  disciples  to  ask  Jesus,  "Art  thou  He  that  was  to  come,  or  must 
we  look  for  another?"  And  Jesus  told  them  to  go  back  and  tell  John 
what  they  had  heard  and  seen — that  the  needy  and  the  helpless  and  the 
miserable  had  found  in  him  a  friend,  and  that  the  gospel  was  preached 
to  the  poor. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  as  a  matter  of  history,  that  these  were  the 
people  with  whom  he  most  clearly  identified  himself ;  it  was  the  re- 
proach of  those  who  hated  him  that  his  friends  were  among  the  lowly ; 
it  was  the  testimony  of  his  companions  that  the  common  people  heard 
him  gladly. 

We  may  say,  then,  that  by  his  own  testimony,  and  the  testimony 
of  those  who  stood  closest  to  him,  this  was  the  characteristic  of  his 
life  and  mission — this  was  the  sign  of  his  Messiahship — that  he  identi- 
fied himself  with  the  lowly  and  the  needy ;  that  he  was  the  friend  of  the 
weak  and  the  poor  and  the  friendless. 

If  this  was  the  characteristic  of  the  Christ,  it  must  be  the  char- 
acteristic of  the  Christian.  The  man,  the  church,  the  nation  that  rightly 
bears  the  Christian  name  must  possess  this  characteristic.  They  must 
have  other  qualities  also,  but  they  must  not  lack  this.  No  matter  liow 
many  other  good  things  may  be  said  about  them,  if  this  cannot  be  said. 
you  must  not  call  them  Christians.  This  is  what  Paul  meant  when  he 
said: 

"  If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  but  have  not  love, 
I  am  become  sounding  brass  or  a  clanging  cymbal.  And  if  I  have  the 
gift  of  prophecy  and  know  all  mysteries  and  all  knowledge,  and  if  I 
have  all  faith,  so  as  to  remove  mountains,  but  have  not  love,  I  am 
nothing." 

I  think  that  this  study  helps  us  to  grasp  one,  at  least,  of  the  essentia! 
meanings  of  the  great  adjective  with  which  we  are  dealing.  And  with 
this  meaning  in  our  minds  what  shall  we  say?  Is  this  a  Christian  na- 
tion?   Does  it  possess  a  Christian  character?    Is  its  life  a  Christian  life? 

I  know  that  there  are  some  who  will  promptly  say,  "No;  the  nation 
in  this  sense  is  not  Christian,  and  we  do  not  want  it  to  be.  No  nation 
ought  to  possess  any  such  character  or  have  any  such  purposes.  It  is 
neither  possible  nor  desirable  that  a  nation  should  live  a  Christian  life 
or  possess  a  Christian  character.  The  business  of  a  nation  is  not 
charity.  Its  function  is  not  to  practise  benevolence,  but  simply  to  do 
justice.  It  ought  to  keep  people  from  trespassing  on  one  another ;  it 
ought  to  preserve  the  peace,  and  provide  for  the  common  defense ;  it 
ought,  so  far  as  possilile,  to  give  every  one  a  chance  to  exercise  his  own 
powers,  and  there  it  ought  to  end." 

I  know  that  much  can  be  said  for  this  theory  of  the  life  of  a  nation, 
but  I  doubt  whether  any  considerable  number  of  human  beings  can  be 

6 


held  together  very  long  upon  this  basis.  I  do  not  believe  that  political 
society  or  industrial  society  or  any  other  society  will  endure  on  a  purely 
individualistic  basis.  There  can  be  no  law  of  profitable  human  inter- 
course of  which  love  is  not  the  heart  and  the  fulfillment. 

If  all  men  were  born  equal  in  physical  and  mental  equipment ;  if  all 
were  started  in  the  race  of  life  with  equal  powers  and  opportunities, 
this  rule  of  laisscz  faire  might  be  a  practicable  rule,  but  it  is  not  so; 
there  are  vast  inequalities ;  multitudes  come  into  life  handicapped  in  a 
thousand  ways  with  evil  inheritance,  and  crippling  environments,  and 
to  fling  them  all  together  into  the  competitive  arena  and  bid  them  fight  it 
out,  is  to  consign  many  of  them  to  degradation  and  destruction.  The 
truth  is  that  this  is  a  world  where  compassion  must  be  a  constant  quan- 
tity ;  there  is  no  kind  of  human  association  in  which  it  can  be  spared ; 
and  when  the  State — that  is  "all  of  us" — undertakes  to  adjust  orr 
human  relations,  it  will  not  be  possible  to  dispense  with  compassion. 

In  truth  this  nation  has  never  tried  to  do  any  such  thing.  Its  com- 
passion has  always  found  expression  in  great  public  ministries  to  the 
defective  and  unfortunate  classes.  The  nation  has  sometimes  been  sel- 
fish and  heathen  and  cruel ;  it  is  not  perfect ;  but  a  great  humanity  has 
been  constantly  revealed  in  our  national  life.  I  remember,  many  years 
ago,  quoting  to  Mr.  James  Bryce,  who  knows  us  so  much  better  than 
w^e  know  ourselves,  a  remark  of  one  of  our  own  publicists,  that  Amer- 
ican legislation,  in  the  state  and  the  nation,  was  "ignorant,  clumsy  and 
brutal."  He  answered  quickly.  "Ignorant?  yes  ;  clumsy?  yes,  of  course  ; 
but  brutal?  no,  that  is  not  true.  The  legislation  of  America  is  full  of  the 
most  humane  intentions." 

I  am  sure  that  this  has  been  true.  Lowell  knew  his  own  motherlantl 
when  he  spoke  of  her  as 

She  that  lifts  up  the  manhood  of  the  poor, 

She  of  the  open  heart  and  open  door, 

With  room  about  her  hearth  for  all  mankind. 

It  would  seem  to  be  nearly  inevitable  that  when  government  is  of 
the  people  and  by  the  people,  and  when  the  people  are  compassionate 
and  kind,  their  compassion  and  kindness  will  find  expression  in  their 
national  life.  That  such  has  been  the  case,  in  some  good  measure,  can 
hardly  be  denied.  It  was  a  great  impulse  of  sympathy  with  the  lowly 
that  drew  this  nation  into  its  costly  struggle  with  slavery;  it  is  a  hu- 
mane sentiment  that  has  thrown  open  the  door  to  the  millions  who  have 
sought  our  shores  from  other  lands;  it  is  an  altruistic  habit  that  has 
prompted  us  as  a  people  to  interpose  when  we  could  in  behalf  of  op- 
pressed peoples,  and  to  stretch  forth  our  hand  of  sympathy  toward  the 
weak  and  the  suffering.     I  think  that  without  boasting,  we  may  claim 


that  this  nation,  in  spite  of  all  its  faults  and  sins,  has  done  more  than 
any  other  nation  of  history  to  introduce  into  diplomacy  and  international 
law  a  larger  sentiment  of  humanity,  and  to  make  possible  the  coming 
of  the  day  for  which  the  great  Englishwoman  so  passionately  prayed, 
when 

Each  Christian  nation  shall  take  upon  her 

The  law  of  the  Christian  man  in  vast  ; 
The  crown  of  the  getter  shall  fall  to  the  donor, 

And  last  shall  be  first  while  first  shall  be  last, 
And  to  love  best  shall  still  be  to  reign  unsurpassed. 

You  observe  that  I  have  been  putting  all  these  statements  about  the 
character  and  purpose  of  the  nation  into,  the  past  tense.  And  you  wish 
to  know  whether  I  mean  to  suggest  this  is  no  longer  her  character  or 
her  purpose.  No ;  I  would  not  say  that.  But  I  do  mean  to  leave  the 
question  open  whether  there  are  signs  that  the  nation  is  in  danger  of 
falling  from  this  high  position.  It  is  not  pessimism ;  it  is  simply  a  wise 
patriotism  which  admits  such  a  possibility  and  bravely  faces  it. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  nation  is  exposed  to  perils  on  this  side. 
When  we  were  all  poor,  it  was  easy  to  think  of  and  care  for  the  poor ; 
now  that  many  of  us  are  very  rich  and  strong,  and  more  of  us  hope 
to  be,  and  most  of  us  want  to  be,  the  claims  of  the  poor  and  the  weak 
seem  less  urgent.  There  is  a  very  powerful  class  which  has  little  sym- 
pathy with  the  humble  and  the  weak,  which  builds  up  its  fortunes,  in- 
deed, by  levying  tribute  upon  their  earnings ;  and  there  are  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  others  who  look  admiringly  upon  the  exploits  of  this 
class  and  wonder  if  they  may  not  sometimes  be  able  to  imitate  them ;  and 
there  is  a  great  multitude  of  others  whose  interests,  in  one  way  and  an- 
other, are  identified  with  the  strong  and  who  do  not  like  to  antagonize 
or  offend  them,  so  that  powerful  influences  are  at  work  to  lower  the 
tone  of  the  national  feeling  toward  the  less  fortunate  classes.  The  enor- 
mous accumulations  of  wealth  which  have  been  heaped  up  in  this  country 
within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  have  done  much  to  modify  the 
national  character  and  to  sophisticate  the  public  conscience.  It  cannot 
be  denied  that  this  plutocracy  tends  to  become  aggressive  and  oppres- 
sive; it  has  often  shown  but  slight  regard  for  the  laws  which  have 
been  enacted  to  restrain  its  greed ;  it  has  sought,  and  often  with  too 
much  success,  to  control  the  legislatures  and  the  courts  in  its  own 
interests. 

While  wealth  has  been  mounting  up  with  gigantic  strides,  at  one 
end  of  the  social  scale,  poverty,  with  stealthy  step,  has  been  creeping 
in  at  the  other.  There  arc  no  adequate  statistics  on  which  definite  state- 
ments can  be  based,  but  a  book  like  that  of  Mr.  Robert  Hunter,  with  its 
cumulative  presentation,  makes  it  all  too  probable  that  the  number  of 


those  who  are  always  Hving  on  the  verge  of  want  is  growing  fast. 
Prosperous  people  are  much  inclined  either  to  discredit  such  statements 
or  to  charge  all  this  increasing  want  to  drink  or  indolence,  but  the 
deeper  reason  is  that  opportunity  is  being  contracted,  and  incentive 
withdrawn,  and  burdens  increased ;  while  accident  and  disease  which 
are  the  direct  result  of  human  greed,  and  which  are  preventable  by  wise 
social  regulation,  are  crippling  and  disabling  many. 

Certain  it  is  that  there  is  increasing  discontent  among  the  people  at 
the  bottom  of  the  social  scale.  They  believe  that  they  are  being  burdened 
and  laid  under  tribute  by  the  combinations  of  selfish  wealth.  These  vast 
fortunes  have  been  drawn  from  the  industries  to  which  they  are  giving 
the  strength  of  their  lives  for  meager  reward,  and  they  feel  that  the 
distribution  is  unequitable.  It  seems  to  them  that  vast  power  has  been 
conferred  upon  the  few,  and  that  it  is  used  for  the  oppression  of  the 
many.  If  this  is  done  by  law  the  laws  are  at  fault ;  if  it  is  done  by  the 
evasion  or  defiance  of  law  the  fault  is  with  those  who  administer  the 
law.s.  In  any  case  the  final  responsibility  rests  with  the  nation — with 
"all  of  us."  Must  we  not  sorrowfully  confess  that  the  nation,  drunk 
with  the  passion  of  accumulation,  has  been  growing  quite  too  careless  of 
the  interests  of  its  humbler  people?  Must  we  not  fear  that  if  the  nation 
once  possessed  a  Christian  character,  she  is  in  danger  of  losing  it  ?  Can 
we  deny  that  elements  and  influences  which  tend  to  separate  the  poor 
from  the  rich  and  to  harden  the  hearts  of  the  rich  against  the  poor,  have 
been  gaining  too  much  control  in  our  national  life?  Must  we  not  say 
that  instead  of  identifying  itself  with  the  fortunes  of  its  humblest  people, 
and  making  sure,  first  of  all,  of  their  welfare,  it  has  been  permitting  its 
power  to  be  used,  more  and  more,  by  the  strong  for  their  aggrandize- 
ment? 

A  philosophic  observer,  whose  home  is  now  in  Washington,  said  to 
me  the  other  day,  "It  is  appalling  to  any  one  who  lives  at  the  national 
capital  and  watches  what  is  going  on,  to  see  the  extent  to  which  money 
rules  everything." 

This  tendency  does  not.  indeed,  dominate  all  lives,  even  in  Wash- 
ington. There  are  a  good  many  yet  who  have  not  bowed  the  knee  to 
Mammon.  There  is,  I  trust,  a  great  multitude  of  those  who  do  not 
mean  that  the  nation  shall  be  faithless  to  her  ideals.  And  among  them 
there  is  none  whose  purposes  are  clearer  or  whose  heart  is  truer  than 
the  man  at  the  head  of  the  nation.  It  is  his  chivalrous  determination  to 
resist  the  aggressions  of  greed,  to  put  an  end  to  the  rule  of  the  spoilers 
and  the  plunderers  and  to  give  "a  square  deal"  to  the  poor  man,  as 
well  as  the  rich  man,  which  has  won  for  our  President  the  love  of  the 
people. 

This  is  the  kind  of  leadership  which  the  nation  must  follow  from 


this  time  forward.  It  must  not  sell  its  birthright  for  gold.  It  must  be, 
in  spirit  and  purpose  and  character,  a  Christian  nation.  It  must  incar- 
nate the  life  of  Christ  in  its  national  life.  It  must  therefore  identify 
itself  with  the  great  masses  of  the  common  people.  It  must  make  them 
know  and  feel  that  it  is  their  country,  that  their  homes  are  its  care, 
that  their  welfare  is  its  pride.  It  must  be  able  to  claim  the  Messianic 
royalty;  it  must  stand  upon  the  shore  of  either  sea,  lifting  up  their 
standard  and  saying,  "Behold  my  divine  anointing:  I  have  a  right  to  rule 
because  I  free  the  slave,  I  lift  up  the  lowly,  I  protect  the  poor." 

And  now  what  shall  we  say  of  the  church  ?  Is  it  worthy  to  bear  the 
Christian  name?  Is  it  able  to  say  of  itself  what  its  Master  said  of  him- 
self: "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  proclaim  re- 
lease to  the  captives  and  recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty 
them  that  are  bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord"? 
Can  it  confidently  quote  these  words  and  then  call  attention  to  its  own 
life,  saying  to  the  multitudes  outside  its  gates,  "In  these  days  is  this 
Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears"?  Is  it  true  of  the  church  that  this  is 
the  characteristic  of  its  life  and  mission — the  outstanding  fact  of  its  his- 
tory— that  it  identifies  itself  with  the  lowly,  and  the  needy ;  that  it 
stands  forth  as  the  friend  of  the  weak  and  the  poor  and  the  friendless ; 
that  by  virtue  of  the  character  and  work  it  keeps  the  hold  upon  the 
common  people  which  its  Master  always  had  ? 

I  do  not  think  that  any  sweeping  answer  can  be  given  to  these 
questions.  If  we  speak  of  the  church  of  history,  its  record,  on  these 
counts,  though  not  faultless,  is  fair  and  bright.  Its  ministries  to  the 
poor  and  the  lowly  through  all  the  ages  have  been  large  and  bountiful ; 
it  has  broken  the  fetters  of  the  slave ;  it  has  l>een  the  helper  of  tl.e  weak 
and  helpless. 

Here,  too,  in  using  the  past  tense,  I  am  not  implying  that  no  such 
signs  are  to  be  seen  in  the  present,  but  I  am  suggesting,  as  before,  the 
query  whether  the  church,  like  the  nation,  is  living  up  to  its  ideals.  Is 
there  any  failure  at  this  point  in  the  'church  of  to-day — in  our  Congre- 
gational churches? 

I  fear  that  we  must  confess  that  there  is  failure  here.  I  will  not 
say  that  w^e  have  Inst  our  hold  on  those  whom  Christ  made  his  closest 
friends,  but  our  hold  is  greatly  weakened.  Our  Congregational  churches 
are  not,  as  a  rule,  the  churches  of  the  common  people.  My  own  church 
is  not,  and  it  is  a  grief  and  shame  to  me  that  it  is  not.  We  can  bring 
under  our  care  a  certain  number  of  the  very  poor,  those  wdio  are  more 
or  less  thriftless  and  who  find  the  friendship  of  the  church  profitable  to 
themselves;  and  these  are  by  no  means  to  be  despised  or  rejected;  w^e 
may  be  able  to  help  and  save  some  of  them — to  save  them  from  the  hot- 


tomless  pit  of  mendicancy,  and  this  is  well  worth  doing :  but  the  class 
above  these — the  honest  self-supporting,  common  people — we  get  very 
few  of  them.  Many  of  them  are  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church;  that 
church  has  the  right  to  call  itself  Christian,  so  far  as  identification  with 
the  common  people  can  give  the  right;  and  some  of  our  Protestant 
churches  in  the  cities,  and  more  of  them  in  the  villages,  succeed  in 
gathering  in  some  of  them,  but,  so  far  as  our  Congregationalism  is  con- 
cerned, most  of  our  strong  churches,  our  leading  churches,  have  but 
slight  relations  with  the  toiling  classes.  One  of  our  most  thoughtful 
pastors  said  to  me  the  other  day,  "The  Congregational  church,  as  a  rule, 
is  the  church  of  the  employers."  It  is  not  a  rule  to  which  there  are  no 
exceptions ;  the  church  of  the  minister  who  made  the  remark  is  an  ex- 
ception, and  there  are  others ;  but  your  experience  will  confirm  it  as 
a  general  truth.  Nor  is  Congregationalism  alone  in  this  condemna- 
tion ;  other  denominations  share  it. 

You  will  remember  that  in  the  London  International  Council  of 
1 89 1,  an  honored  Congregational  leader  maintained  that  Congregation- 
alism was,  by  its  traditions  and  tendencies,  the  church  of  the  intelligent 
and  the  well-to-do ;  that  we  should  recognize  that  fact  and  adjust  our 
work  to  it.  Against  that  proposition  there  were  some  warm  protests ; 
nevertheless  it  indicates  a  fact,  and  it  is  a  fact  in  which  we  should  not 
glory. 

I  fear  that  it  must  be  said  of  the  Protestant  churches  generally,  that 
they  have  been  becoming,  more  and  more,  the  churches  of  the  employers, 
and  those  industrially  and  socially  affiliated  with  them,  and  less  and 
less  the  churches  of  the  plain  people  who  work  with  their  hands.  I 
have  been  loth  to  believe  this — in  fact,  I  have  more  than  once  disputed 
it;  but  the  truth  has  been  forced  upon  me.  It  is  a  fact  which  cannot 
be  denied,  which  must  be  faced.  What  does  it  mean?  What  shall  we 
say  about  it  ?  What  can  we  say  but  this,  that  it  indicates  some  lament- 
able lowering  of  the  Christian  ideals?  A  church  which,  for  any  cause 
whatever,  is  permitting  itself  to  be  separated  more  and  more  from  the 
toiling  millions  is  in  danger  of  losing  its  right  to  the  Christian  name.  It 
ought  to  be  asking  itself  very  earnestly  whether  it  bears  the  character  of 
its  Master  and  is  filled  with  his  spirit.  The  tests  which  he  applied  to 
himself,  by  which  he  insisted  that  his  claims  to  the  Messiahship  should 
be  judged,  are  the  tests  which  the  church  of  to-day  must  apply  to  itself. 
If  the  church  cannot  meet  them,  there  is  something  wrong  with  tha 
church. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  fault  is  with  those  who  have  gone  out  or 
who  have  not  come  in ;  that  they  are  self-exiled :  that  bad  leaders  have 
filled  them  with  suspicion  and  enmity.  But  whatever  truth  there  may 
be  in  this,  it  is  a  confession  of  incompetency.    The  church  has  no  right 


to  shield  itself  behind  such  a  plea.  When  two  are  estranged  the  heavier 
blame  must  rest  on  the  stronger.  The  presumption  is  that  he,  with  his 
larger  knowledge,  and  ampler  spiritual  resources,  could  have  overcome 
suspicion  and  disarmed  enmity.  If  such  an  alienation  as  this  has 
taken  place  the  church  must  be  mainly  to  blame  for  it.  We  have  no 
right  to  admit  that  any  kind  of  ill-will  can  resist  the  appeal  of  patient, 
resolute,  self-sacrificing  love.  We  ought  to  believe  that  the  love  of 
Christ,  abiding  in  his  people,  is  invincible.  If  we  have  failed  to  over- 
come the  tendencies  to  the  alienation  of  the  common  people  from  the 
church  we  have  failed  to  use  the  power  entrusted  to  us. 

Let  us  not  belittle  this  failure.  It  means  much  to  us,  more  than  most 
of  us  are  ready  to  acknowledge.  It  has  weakened  the  church  in  a  vital 
part.  It  has  set  in  motion  tendencies  which,  if  they  are  not  arrested, 
will  end  in  degeneration  and  decay.  Something  may  survive  but  it 
will  not  be  the  church  for  which  Jesus  Qirist  gave  his  life. 

Consider,  for  a  moment,  what  will  happen,  if  tendencies  now  at 
work  are  not  arrested.  The  day  is  not  far  distant  when  the  church 
will  be  the  representative  of  the  wealthy  and  well-to-do  people,  and  of 
those  affiliated  with  them;  of  the  merchants,  the  manufacturers,  the 
professional  people,  the  teachers,  the  salaried  men  and  women  ;  and 
when  the  mechanics,  the  operatives,  the  hand-workers  in  general,  and 
the  common  laborers  will  be  practically  outside  of  it.  Is  that  a  result 
which  any  one  can  contemplate  with  equanimity  ?  Would  not  the  doom 
of  the  church  be  registered  in  such  a  condition  as  that?  What  must 
be  the  relation  of  Jesus  Christ  to  a  church  which  is  suffering  itself 
to  drift  into  that  condition,  or  anything  approximating  to  it? 

The  church  and  the  nation  are  thus  together  confronting  a  serious 
question.  It  is  the  question  whether  they  are  in  danger  of  losing  the 
right  to  bear  the  Qiristian  name.  It  is  the  question  whether  the  char- 
acter of  each  is  passing  through  a  transformation  which  tends  to  make 
it  something  quite  other  than  once  it  was. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  prove  that  the  Christian  church  can- 
not expect  to  live  and  flourish  when  it  ceases  to  represent  in  its  char- 
acter and  life  that  which  was  essential  in  the  character  and  life  of 
Christ. 

There  may  be  some  question  as  to  whether  the  nation  is  in  equal 
peril  from  the  same  cause.  It  may  be  said  that  the  nation  makes  no 
profession  of  faith  and  cannot  be  punished  for  apostasy.  But  this  is 
not  a  question  of  profession.  It  is  a  question  of  life  and  death.  There 
is  a  way  of  life  for  nations,  as  for  men,  and  that  is  the  Christian  way. 
Mr.  Kidd.  in  a  great  historic  generalization,  points  it  out,  in  philosophic 
terms.  There  is  a  "cosmic  process,"  he  tells  us,  "which  is  everywhere 
triumphant   in   human   history.     There  has  been   no  suspension  of  it. 


There  has  been  no  tendency  of  suspension."  What  is  this  process? 
It  is  "the  emancipation  and  the  raising  of  the  lower  classes  of  the  peo- 
ple." Now  there  is  no  compulsion  by  which  a  nation  can  be  forced 
to  organize  its  Hfe  in  harmony  with  this  process.  Some  nations,  Rus- 
sia, for  example,  have  obstinately  refused  to  do  so.  But  cosmic  pro- 
cesses do  not  halt  or  turn  aside  for  the  greatest  nations ;  the  nations 
go  down  before  them,  as  Russia  is  going  down  to-day.  The  United 
States  did  organize  its  life  in  harmony  with  this  process,  of  which 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  concrete  embodiment,  and  incarnation.  If  it  swerves 
from  this  high  ideal,  if  it  suffers  itself  to  become  careless  of  the  in- 
terests of  those  with  whom  he  identified  himself,  the  cosmic  process  will 
go  on.  For  though  the  kings  of  finance  set  themselves,  and  the  trusts 
and  the  grafters  take  counsel  together  against  the  Lord  and  against 
his  anointed,  saying,  'Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder  and  cast  away 
their  cords  from  us,'  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh,  the 
Lord  shall  have  them  in  derision.  When  any  nation  suffers  its  power 
to  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  who  plunder  the  poor  for  their  enrich- 
ment, the  ominous  fingers  will  be  seen  writing  upon  the  wall,  "Thou 
art  weighed  and  found  wanting." 

It  cannot,  of  course,  be  conceived  that  the  church  should  emerge 
unharmed  from  the  wreck  of  the  nation.  The  life  of  the  two  is  indis- 
solubly  joined  together.  The  church  is  the  soul  of  the  nation,  if  the 
nation  has  a  soul.  The  nation's  faithlessness  is  proof  and  consequence 
of  the  church's  infidelity.  If  the  church  were  alive  with  the  life  of 
Christ  neither  the  church  nor  the  nation  could  perish. 

Therefore  there  comes  to-day  a  mighty  call  to  the  church  to  save  the 
life  of  the  nation  in  saving  its  own  life.  Of  the  seriousness  of  this 
juncture  there  can  be  no  question.  I  am  content  to  be  called  an  alarm- 
ist, if  you  will.  There  are  times  when  the  watchman  must  blow  the 
trumpet  and  warn  the  people.  I  believe  that  my  habit  is  sufficiently 
optimistic,  but  optimism  is  treachery.  It  is  not  well  with  the  church, 
this  day ;  it  is  ill  with  the  church.  Her  grip  is  loosening,  her  energies 
are  flagging ;  there  is  a  perceptible  slackening  in  her  progress.  Some- 
thing is  wrong  and  every  thoughtful  man  knows  it. 

Something  is  wrong  with  our  evangelism.  What  is  it?  Is  it  the 
Higher  Criticism  and  the  New  Theology?  Read  Dr.  Brown's  sober, 
searching,  candid  review  of  the  Chapman  meetings  in  Oakland.  AH 
the  churches,  of  every  name,  co-operated  most  cordially;  these  churches 
were  crowded — with  church  members — every  day  for  weeks ;  the  the- 
ology of  all  tlie  preaching  was  above  suspicion  :  the  Hisfher  Triticism 
was  put  to  shame,  and  sociology  was  not  so  much  as  mentioned ;  but 
the  great  outside  multitude,  the  multitude  of  the  unchurched,  was  prac- 
tically untouched.     This  is  the  testimony. 

13 


Is  it  the  newer  thinking  that  is  needed?  Well,  we  had  that,  in  its 
most  persuasive  and  attractive  form,  in  Columbus,  just  before  Easter; 
when  Dr.  Abbott  in  a  series  of  the  most  luminous  sermons,  set  forth 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  so  clearly  and  winningly  that  it  seemed  as  if 
no  rational  man  could  resist  the  appeal :  and  though  the  church  was 
crowded  every  night  to  the  doors,  there  was  but  slight  response  to  the 
call  for  enlistment. 

Something  is  wrong  here.  This  great  society,  with  its  magnificent 
record  behind  it,  with  a  strong  hold  upon  the  affections  of  Congrega- 
tionalists,  with  great  obligations  upon  it  and  great  opportunities  before 
it,  finds  itself  confronting  a  crisis  in  its  history,  crippled  by  its  debt, 
doubtful  of  its  resources,  and  anxiously  'challenging  the  future.  In 
other  societies  there  is  solicitude  and  uncertainty. 

What  does  it  all  mean?  I  believe,  my  brethren,  that  we  have  seen, 
this  evening,  something  of  what  it  means.  The  church  has  so  far  for- 
gotten its  essential  character,  that  it  has  lost  no  small  measure  of  its 
power.  Its  alliance  is  mainly  with  the  prosperous.  Its  hopes  are  cen- 
tered upon  the  strong  and  the  influential.  I  do  not  say  that  it  has 
wholly  lost  its  interest  in  the  poor ;  that  is  nowhere  true ;  but  that  in- 
terest has  ceased  to  be,  in  too  many  cases,  the  central  and  commanding 
interest.  It  is  not  an  apostate  church ;  God  forbid  that  I  should  say 
any  such  thing ;  but  it  is  a  'church  of  whom  He  that  holdeth  the  seven 
stars  in  His  right  hand  is  saying:  "I  know  thy  works,  and  thy  toil  and 
thy  patience :  .  .  .  nevertheless  I  have  this  against  thee  that  thou 
didst  leave  thy  first  love."  Thy  first  love — the  love  that  thou  didst 
learn  at  the  feet  of  the  Master, — the  love  of  the  humblest  and  the 
neediest.  They  are  not  to  thee  what  they  were  to  him ;  thou  canst  not 
say  what  he  said,  "The  spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor."  Therefore  it  is  that 
when  thou  goest  forth  with  the  g6od  tidings  there  is  a  deepening  and 
widening  gulf  betwixt  thee  and  those  to  whom  thou  art  sent :  therefore 
it  is  that  thy  high  enthusiasms  are  chilled  and  the  pulses  of  thy  life 
beat  feebly,  and  thy  treasuries  are  empty,  and  thy  heart  is  filled  with 
fear.  Thou  hast  been  looking  for  help  to  the  prosperous  and  the  power- 
ful :  thou  hast  forgotten  whence  thy  strength  must  come. 

O  Daughter  of  my  people,  that  thou  mightest  know,  in  this  thy 
day,  the  things  that  belong  to  thy  peace,  before  they  are  hidden  from 
thine  eyes !  For  it  is  He  who  is  the  incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Wisdom 
who  is  calling  unto  thee,  "Whoso  findeth  me  findeth  life,"  and  thou 
knowest  where  to  search  for  him :  with  what  sort  of  people  he  is  always 
identified ;  in  what  company  he  may  be  found. 

This  is  the  message  for  the  churches,  for  all  the  churches.  It  is 
their  life  that  needs  to  be  replenished  ;  when  they  have  found  him,  there 

14 


will  be  resources  enough  for  all  their  work.  Brethren,  I  take  this  word 
home  to  myself,  the  reproach  of  it,  the  shame  of  it.  I  know  that  this 
is  what  my  church  needs  more  than  anything  else — a  closer  identifica- 
tion with  the  life  of  the  common  people.  It  has  lain  heavily  on  my 
heart  many  days,  and  I  have  been  seeking  for  ways  of  bridging  the 
chasm  which  separates  us  from  those  who  would,  we  know,  be  Christ's 
closest  friends  if  he  were  here.  I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  the  one 
great  need  of  all  our  churches,  to  break  down  the  barriers  that  separate 
us  from  tliem.  to  overcome  their  suspicions  and  their  fears,  to  make 
them  believe  that  we  love  them,  that  their  interests  are  dear  to  us,  that 
the  brotherhood  of  man  is  not  to  us  a  phrase,  but  the  central  fact  of 
our  lives.  I  do  not  believe  that  our  evangelism  will  accomplish  any- 
thing until  we  can  solve  this  problem ;  when  it  is  solved,  a  flame  of 
sacred  love  will  be  kindled  that  will  run  like  prairie  fire  all  over  the 
land. 

It  is  your  message,  too,  brethren  of  this  society — yours,  no  less  than 
ours,  ycurs  because  it  is  ours.  On  the  frontiers,  in  the  hamlets,  in 
the  swarming,  polyglot  populations  of  the  cities,  you  must  make  friends 
with  the  poor.  They  are  your  strongest  allies.  Win  their  love  and  all 
is  well  with  you.  You  may  get  the  co-operation  of  all  the  plutocrats 
in  the  country  and  it  will  do  you  no  permanent  good ;  your  treasury 
will  be  quickly  drained  and  your  debts  will  accumulate,  but  if  you  can 
make  the  poor  people,  the  common  people,  believe  in  you  and  love  you, 
your  cause  will  not  fail  nor  will  your  springs  run  dry.  The  Lxjrd  must 
love  the  poor  people,  the  common  people,  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  for  he  has 
made  so  many  of  them.  He  does  love  them ;  they  are  very  near  to  him ; 
and  it  is  therefore  well  worth  while  to  have  them  for  our  friends. 

The  cities,  the  great  industrial  centers,  the  mining  districts,  are  full 
of  these  people  who  are  outside  the  churches — and  who,  though  most 
of  them  are  not  in  want,  and  need  no  charity,  are,  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
"distressed  and  scattered,  as  sheep  having  no  shepherd."  It  was  to 
such  as  these  that  the  heart  of  the  Master  went  out  in  compassion ;  it  is 
to  them  that  we  must  go. 

You  say  that  you  have  been  trying  to  reach  them ;  yes.  we  have  all 
been  trying. — about  half  trying ;  but  we  have  not  put  into  our  endeavor 
the  passion  of  consecrated  purpose  which  a  Christly  love  would  inspire. 

I  am  persuaded  that  this  is  the  underlying  reason  of  all  our  em- 
barrassments and  perplexities,  as  a  society.  There  may  have  been  errors 
of  policy,  faults  of  management,  but  the  conditions  that  disturb  us 
to-day  have  a  deeper  origin ;  they  will  not  be  cured  by  any  new  ad- 
justments of  machinery.  They  spring  from  a  cooling  enthusiasm,  a 
waning  love  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  our  churches.  We  are  out 
of  touch  with  the  sources  of  our  power.    We  have  lost  the  Messianic 

15 


fire.  It  will  never  be  rekindled  until  with  all  our  hearts  we  return  to 
Him  who  said,  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  because  he  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor," — and  who,  under  the 
shadow  of  Gethsemane,  prayed ;  "As  thou  didst  sent  me  into  the  world, 
even  so  sent  I  them  into  the  world." 

If  all  this  is  true,  doubtless  it  will  call  on  us  all  for  some  deep 
searchings  of  heart,  some  changes  in  our  methods  of  work,  some  new 
alignment  of  our'  forces,  some  simplification  of  our  lives,  some  broaden- 
ing of  our  friendships  to  include  many  with  whom  we  have  had, 
hitherto,  but  little  in  common.  But  all  these  sacrifices  will  bring  in 
their  own  'compensation.  And  I  trust  that  to  some  of  us,  at  least,  there 
may  appear  a  vision  of  what  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  might  be,  in  this 
day  and  generation,  if  she  would  gather  into  herself  the  resources  that 
belong  to  her, — even  the  weak  and  despised  things — ^the  things  that  God 
hath  chosen, — and  thus  replenished  and  equipped  would  go  forth  to  do 
battle  for  her  Lord.  To  such  a  church  there  could  come  no  dream  of 
defeat,  no  fear  of  failure ;  the  Kingdom  and  the  greatness  of  the  King- 
dom under  the  whole  heaven  would  be  hers,  and  in  the  name  of  her 
Lord  she  would  enter  in  and  take  possession. 


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